By Julius T. Jaesen, II
Recent allegations by Mohammed Bamba, a former Special Assistant in the office of Jefferson Koijee at the MCC, against Col. Abraham Kromah, the current Director-General of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), have drawn my attention.
Before I attempt to pointedly refute the politically motivated vague allegations, unpack the maliciously conjectured falsehoods heaped at a revered Law Enforcement Professional, Col. Abraham Kromah, and provide the stubborn and hard truth being willfully and intentionally distorted, may I clarify that I am not the spokesperson for the LDEA nor the Director-General but I am on public record of speaking truth to power and acknowledging the impeccability of the public service records of a few Liberian professionals.
In Bamba’s hateful and emotionally packed article wrapped up in several itchy lines, he asserts: “According to the Global Action for Sustainable Development, 2023 situational analysis reports on Drug Abuse in Liberia, Liberia is fast becoming a significant transit country for illicit narcotics, the country’s nascent law enforcement capacity, porous border controls, and proximity to major drug transit routes contribute to trafficking to and through Liberia”.
He also went on to state, “The report also indicated that there are 866 ghettos in Monrovia and over 100,000 of the estimated number of substance users.
This situation of drug abuse and illicit trafficking has hit its zenith as the current leadership of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency led by a renowned ex-rebel Abe Kromah has either become a culprit or a facilitator in the widespread crisis that continues to destroy the young population of our country.”
Mohammed Bamba’s reliance on a report published in April of 2023 doing the CDC’s administration to cast aspersions on Col. Abraham Kromah’s impeccable leadership at the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) is not just a feeble attempt at diversion and an egregious misrepresentation of the facts; it’s an indictment of the moral decay within Liberia’s political corridors.
By insinuating that Col. Kromah’s leadership is responsible for the surge in narcotic drugs and the proliferation of ghettos in Monrovia, Bamba unwittingly exposes the rot within his own political circles and the failure of his CDC’s government over the last six years in the war against drugs by the fact that he looked to a 2023 report to make his fallacious claims.
What, then, is the impact of the six years of Bamba’s CDC government, if, after six years in 2023, Liberia is now considered as a significant transit country for illicit narcotics and that drug abuse and illicit trafficking have hit its zenith?
No wonder why Liberians vehemently rejected the CDC’s reelection bid in 2023 and the popularity of George Weah far diminished in less than one year in his administration until he could no longer lift a legislative candidate’s hand to win an election anywhere considered to be the CDC’s strongholds.
Bamba’s allegiance to Jefferson T. Koijee, a figure now designated by the U.S., taints his credibility and reveals his role as a puppet in a political charade. It’s a botched attempt to deflect attention from the failures of his own government and to obscure the truth from the Liberian people.
Bamba’s assertion that Col. Kromah is accountable for Liberia’s drug epidemic is not just misguided; it’s a deliberate distortion of facts. Col. Kromah assumed leadership of the LDEA less than 90 days ago, not hardly enough time to reverse the entrenched issues that have plagued Liberia for years – which we saw exacerbated under Bamba’s CDC government.
Instead of acknowledging the systemic failures of his own government over the past six years, Bamba chooses to vilify a man whose three months at the LDEA witnessed the crackdown on a few powerful drug cartels in Liberia.
In his article, Bamba conveniently ignores the root causes of Liberia’s drug epidemic, which can be traced back to years of neglect and mismanagement under his own party’s rule.
Rather than addressing the underlying issues of poverty and lack of opportunity, Bamba’s government perpetuated a cycle of despair, contributing to the proliferation of ghettos and drug abuse – one of which ghettos can be found at the back of his CDC’s Headquarters in Congo Town.
Sadly, his fearmongering about Col. Kromah raiding ghettos including the one in the CDC’s headquarters, coupled with Abe Kromah’s arrest of Jefferson Koijee for flogging mercilessly, one of their partisans in 2014, are partly responsible for the absurdities he spews out in his writeups.
For six years, Bamba’s government, the CDC administration, demonstrated a callous disregard for the welfare of Liberian youth. Despite drawing significant support from young people in 2017, the CDC government failed to deliver on its promises, leaving many jobless and hopeless resulting in more “at-risk” youths, at-risk children, at-risk elders, and at-risk families than ever before – a major problem that has been inherited by the Boakai-led administration which Col. Kromah and the government of Liberia will have to address.
Bamba’s government did nothing to uplift young Liberian lives, instead, they turned our youth into drug addicts for six years by exposing them to kush and other harmful substances. It is an incontestable fact that for six years, Bamba’s CDC government failed to fund the LDEA which led to the entity he now shamelessly describes as a toothless bulldog to lose the fight against illicit drugs.
Also, instead of empowering qualified and dedicated men and women into the LDEA and other law enforcement entities, Bamba’s government recruited hardened criminals and ex-combatants released from prison into the LDEA who themselves are drug peddlers and addicts. How then Liberia cannot be shamefully described as a significant transit point for illicit drugs?
The Global Action for Sustainable Development’s 2023 Report cited by Bamba states, “The main body of authority charged with managing drug-related crime in Liberia is the Liberian Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA). The Liberian National Police (LNP) is also involved in combatting drug crime, but both agencies are underfunded, undermanned, and generally under-resourced. LDEA remains one of the least funded security institutions in Liberia”.
Using Bamba’s pick of authoritative reports on situational drug analysis in Liberia, one can posit that the CDC’s government did absolutely nothing to fight drug trafficking and drug use in Liberia for six years of its presidency.
I would have taken interest in Bamba telling Liberians his government’s support to the LDEA – the institution tasked with the responsibility of combating illicit drug use and trafficking in Liberia. But for six years, they did nothing as evidenced in the GASD report he cited to paint a doomed picture of the LDEA under Col. Kromah.
Bamba should be happy that the persona of Col. Abraham Kromah now makes the LDEA poised to attract huge national and international support to the fight against the drug epidemic in Liberia.
For the first time in living memory, the LDEA under Abe Kromah bags the budget support of approximately 10 million United States Dollars. This is a huge win for Liberia that Bamba’s government didn’t do.
According to Bamba’s authoritative report, “In the last two fiscal years, the LDEA was allotted over eight hundred thousand United States dollars as an operations fund. However, it is not confirmed whether the LDEA received the full amount from the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning.
A recent assessment by GASD in five rural communities shows that the LDEA does not have the logistics and manpower to fully function in the counties. Key challenges identified included no vehicle to enhance operations and limited professionally employed staff.”
This above report cited in Bamba’s article defeats his argument against Col. Abe Kromah and exposes the willful neglect of the fight against illicit drug use and trafficking by his CDC’s government for six years – which has caused the country to lose the drug war thus making our youth vulnerable to dangerous drugs.
Fast forward to another point, in his overly used talking point, Bamba wrote: “On February 6, 2024, the Liberian Senate in total disregard for the terrible human rights violation record of Abraham Kromah confirmed him as the Director General for the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency.
The Senate unconsciously ignored the despicable track record of Abraham Kromah as an Ex ULIMO-fighter, human rights abuser, and one of the most tyrannical Inspector General for Operations of the Liberia National Police and confirmed him.”
This is a flimsy claim that has no strength in evidence but rather a sorrowful appeal to elementary sentiments and poor propaganda. Nowhere in the Truth and Reconciliation Final Report of 2010 has the name of Col. Abraham Kromah ever been mentioned as an Ex-General of ULIMO-K. I encourage the young comrade Bamba to refrain from being used as Koijee’s echo chamber of inflammatory rhetoric and falsehoods.
History is replete with Bamba’s leader and mentor, Jefferson Koijee, besmearing the character of respected statesmen during his days in the opposition from 2006 to 2017 – an approach to politicking in which he has now enlisted Bamba.
If Bamba genuinely decries any acts of human rights abuses, he will not be heralding and associating himself with a man like Jefferson Tamba Koijee – a young man notorious for various forms of violence and human rights abuses.
In a significant move targeting corruption and human rights abuses, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has designated Bamba’s Jefferson Koijee, the former Mayor of Monrovia, for his alleged involvement in illicit activities during his tenure from 2018 to 2024 in Liberia.
The decision to sanction Koijee came amid mounting concerns over rampant corruption and human rights violations within the Liberian government. According to OFAC, Koijee stands accused of engaging in corrupt practices, including embezzlement of public funds and bribery, to enrich himself and consolidate his political power. Additionally, he is alleged to have exploited his position of authority to suppress dissent and undermine democratic processes, thereby violating the fundamental rights of Liberian citizens.
Amid these claims against Bamba’s Koijee by credible international institutions including Liberia’s traditional ally, the United States, and the plead to Liberian citizens to not associate themselves with sanctioned officials, Mohammed Bamba still associates with a notorious criminal and perpetrator of human rights abuse whilst vilifying a decent man like Abe Kromah who has no tarnishes to his character anywhere – whether in the TRC Report or U.S. institutions.
Under Koijee-Bamba’s leadership at the Monrovia City Corporation, Monrovia, the Capital City of Liberia, found itself under an international spotlight for all the wrong reasons. A Monrovia that was a bid doing well under the leadership of Mary T. Broh during the 12 years of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, struggled under the weight of mounting filth and neglect, with its streets lined with garbage and urban areas resembling scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie.
https://thedaylight.org/2021/10/12/four-facts-that-show-why-monrovia-is-dirty/
Under Koijee’s leadership, Monrovia has witnessed a disturbing trend of deteriorating sanitation conditions, with piles of trash and debris becoming a common sight across the city. Residents and visitors alike were appalled by the state of affairs, with many expressing concerns over the potential health hazards posed by the unsanitary conditions witnessed under Koijee-Bamba’s leadership at MCC.
https://thenewdawnliberia.com/eu-envoy-monrovia-the-dirtiest-disgusting-city/
As Col. Abe Kromah assumes leadership of the LDEA, he inherits a daunting task: to undo the damage wrought by years of neglect and mismanagement, which was further exacerbated at endemic proportions.
But unlike his predecessors, Kromah is committed to addressing the root causes of Liberia’s drug epidemic and providing opportunities for the country’s youth. Through comprehensive programs and initiatives, Kromah’s administration aims to give new lives to Liberia’s most vulnerable citizens and build a brighter future for all Liberians.
